From Pilot Project to Success Story

The McPherson College Student Debt Project is a concept developed from the college’s most recent strategic plan, Community by Design, to bring the entire campus together to solve of one the most challenging issues facing students and families today – student debt. What started as a small pilot program in the fall of 2017 has grown in size, as well as in the impact it makes on the financial wellness of students and campus.

The plan was to find a financial model that balances student and family cost with the institution’s need for sustainable revenue. The Student Debt Project is the result of an initiative for redefining the tuition revenue model to ensure affordability and institutional revenue.

“In developing the Student Debt Project we wanted to explore the biggest concern students and families have about attending college, which is student debt,” President Michael Schneider said. “Rather than focusing on cost or scholarship discounting, we wanted a program that focused on mentoring students to manage finances and learn important financial skills that will benefit them after they graduate.”

The project focuses on three key areas: employment, mentorship, and financial literacy. Students in the project commit to working during college, payments they make on their student accounts that come from their earnings are matched by the college, and students meet regularly with mentors who serve as a resource for questions about budgeting and other aspects of student life.

“My biggest goal was to avoid loans,” said Cheneal Benne, a graphic design and art education major from Courtland,Kansas. She has not taken any student loans yet and plans to graduate in 2023 debt free. She applied the income from her campus job with the theatre department and working as a server at Applebee’s to her student account this academic year with a little left over and plans to apply that income, plus income from her summer jobs back in Courtland, to the fall semester.

Through support from alumni and friends, the college’s total match to student payments this year was $93,001, and students have applied a total of $373,445 toward their accounts this year. Participants have reduced their projected debt at graduation by nearly $10,000 per student. That’s more than a 30 percentreduction in debt, and many still have one, two, or even three more years of college to bring their debt lower or eliminate all of it.

Students in the project represent a cross-section of the McPherson College student population. Nearly 10 percent are the first in their families to attend college, nearly half are minority or international students, and 40 percent are Pell grant-eligible students. Each student also has different financial goals they hope to achieve before graduation.

For Matthew Mahan, an automotive restoration technology student from Topeka, the matching funds from the college give him the extra space he needs to devote more time to his other interests like photography and cars.

“It’s not that much extra work and the college match really makes the program worthwhile,” he said. “The match makes it so I don’t have to work quite as much, and I am able to spend more time putting my portfolio together.”

When the college introduced the project in 2017, it was hoped that the project would make it possible for a significant number of students to afford a college education, anticipating that long-term success would include keeping and graduating more students. Today, the college is seeing the realization of those aspirations.

The project has grown from a cohort of just six students in the pilot year to nearly 200 this past academic year and more than 150 new students are expected to apply to the program next fall. Additionally, retention of students participating in the project was more than 90 percent from fall to spring, and retention of first-generation students in the program was 100 percent.

Students in the program are also seeing the progress they are making toward graduating with little to no debt and recognize the impact it will have on their futures. Benne said without the burden of undergraduate debt she is much more confident in pursuing a post-graduate degree.Mahon also sees opportunities that might be available to him by graduating debt-free.

“Without debt when I graduate, I will have an opportunity to set aside more and start investing,” he said. “It’s money I will be able to put toward a down payment on a house someday.”

McPherson College will make sure every student understands their financial wellness during the fall orientation by giving each student a personal budget sheet that shows their costs, financial aid, and how participating in the Student Debt Project could help them reduce the gap owed before loans.

“We are taking it to the next level this fall,” Christi Hopkins, vice president for enrollment management, said. “It is important to help our students understand their financial obligations and see that there are options other than taking out loans, which many times are more than they really need to cover the cost of their education.”